The death of an Iranian Defense Ministry engineer last month at Iran’s Parchin military complex, located about 30 kilometers, or 19 miles, southeast of Tehran was caused by “industrial sabotage,” an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander told an Iranian media outlet.
Syrian President Bashar Assad accepted the credentials of Bahrain’s new ambassador to Damascus. Assad “exchanged discussions with him on a number of topics and issues of concern to the two brotherly countries, wishing him success in his mission,” according to the state news agency SANA. Waheed Mubarak Sayyar was appointed as Bahrain’s ambassador to Syria more than six months ago, but reportedly just took up his post more than a week ago when he was received in Damascus by Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, who also attended Sunday’s ceremony.
Eleven soldiers and two civilians were killed in an attack on a bus in northern Syria on Monday, the Syrian military said in a statement. The bus was ambushed at 6:30 am local time while en route from the Ar Raqqah Governorate to the central province of Homs in an area called al-Jireh, said the statement. Three soldiers were wounded in the attack. The military did not say who perpetrated the attack, which called it an act of terrorism, nor has anyone claimed responsibility for it.
At the latest Astana Group meeting on Syria, Russia and Iran tried to soothe Turkey by rejecting the Kurdish-led self-rule in northern Syria in a joint declaration this week.
Turkey failed to garner Russian and Iranian backing for a fresh military intervention against Syrian Kurdish forces at the meeting of the Astana platform this week.
Discussions between Turkey, Finland and Sweden about the Nordic countries’ proposed NATO membership have ended inconclusively as Ankara showed no signs of abandoning its hardline position.
Discussions between Turkey, Finland and Sweden about the Nordic countries’ NATO membership held in Brussels today ended inconclusively as Ankara showed no signs of abandoning its maximalist position, sources said.
Holed up in a bombed-out house in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian troops keep a careful accounting of their ammunition, using a door as a sort of ledger. Scrawled in chalk on the door are figures for mortar shells, smoke shells, shrapnel shells, flares.
Vladimir Putin looked very much at ease.
In a much-viewed video this month, the Russian president settled deep into his armchair, wearing an expression of bored nonchalance. In a matter-of-fact tone, he likened himself to a modern-day Peter the Great, the empire-building Russian czar, and suggested that the conquest of a sovereign neighbor’s territory was not only justifiable, but laudable.
The United States and Iran had their latest near miss Monday, after three vessels controlled by Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps buzzed two American ships at what the U.S. military called “dangerously high speed.”
The USS Sirocco, a Cyclone-class patrol ship, and the USNS Choctaw County, a fast transport vessel, were in routine transit through international waters in the Persian Gulf when three Iranian boats designed for fast attack approached the Sirocco head on, according to a U.S. military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the encounter. They diverted only after the Sirocco issued an audible warning signal. The Iranian boats also came within 50 yards of the Choctaw County, prompting the Sirocco to deploy a warning flare.
As the U.S. pursues a maritime strategy that prioritizes a blue-water navy, Russia appears to be betting on smaller, missile-laden vessels to help it slowly gain territory and influence, according to military analysts.
Smaller Russian warships like corvettes and frigates aren’t built for fights with the U.S. Navy.
Pentru că viața noastră de zi cu zi este în principal preocupată de chestiuni lumești într-o lume care pare relativ stabilă și prosperă – chiar și oamenii săraci nu mor de foame în Occident și dispun de facilități de bază – , cei mai mulți dintre noi nu conștientizează din ce perioadă extraordinară a istoriei facem parte. Este atât un blestem, cât și o binecuvântare, deoarece timpul nostru este atât epocal, cât și satanic.